Our Christmas Vacation

I had 2 weeks off over Christmas & it was so amazing! I had every intension of posting about our Christmas…but then HBO announced they were running the complete seasons of Game of Thrones from the beginning. It premiered about a month after Elena was born & I missed it back then & since just never had the time to catch up. So I dedicated my evenings to binge watching that instead.  I don’t regret it either! I feel like I got the best of both worlds, an abundance of quality time with Elena plus indulging myself by giving myself permission to immerse myself in the series. Now I have to play blog catch up because we really did have a wonderful holiday & I don’t want to forget it.

Even though this was for a sad occasion, my aunt’s memorial service, I just loved how adorable this photo turned out

 

I’ve really been on the fence about the Santa Question…on the one hand, I don’t want to lie to Elena nor do I want to deprive her of the innocence of believing in Santa. I decided to just let her lead the way on the whole topic & Elena was thoroughly into the magic of him this year. We had so many fun & thoughtful conversations about him. I adore how great her photo with Santa turned out, total redemption after her first.

 

Elena was also very interested in Hanukah since they of course were celebrating it at her preschool. She learned to play dreidel & “made” latkes (with construction paper).   She kept asking if we could have Hanukah at our house. I told her I didn’t know anything about Hanukah but we found a really great children’s book at the library that informed us both.

I gave Elena an early Christmas present & took her to see Toopy & Binoo. It was nostalgic because the first show we ever went to was Toopy & Binoo, we’ve seen dozens since so it was nice to see them again & Elena loved it!

 

On the Friday at the beginning of my holiday, we bundled up after dinner & did a Christmas Lights tour, a tradition I hope to continue. It was fun!

 

On the Sunday before Christmas we were looking for something to do as our plans had fallen through & stumbled upon a great experience. It wasn’t exactly a Sleigh Ride since we didn’t have any snow but it was the next best thing.

 

On Christmas Eve we continued our cookie baking tradition. The difference this year was Elena wanted to leave a plate for Santa. I told you, she was totally into him this year!

 

 

 Elena had asked Santa for Elsa & Anna dolls (yes she is totally into Frozen!) Santa complied, of course.  I decided to get her doll house…the doll house I wished I’d had as a girl. When Elena saw it Christmas morning, she was beyond excited & squealed, “Santa brought me a doll house!” Damn Santa stole my thunder!! Oh well!

 

My friend & her family came to visit after Christmas & while they were here, her husband’s cousin invited us all over for dinner. I was very nervous about going with Elena as the cousin is fairly wealthy & live in a mansion. I was terrified Elena would run wild & break something worth more than I make in a year! The first thing Elena noticed after we arrived was the old fashioned grandfather clock & of course had her Frozen moment:

 

I am proud to say that she did not break anything & more than that, she was a complete angel, remembering her manners, eating all her dinner & playing quietly, no tantrums, no misbehaving, I was just bursting with pride! I know it helped having my friend’s kids there too, they helped keep her occupied.

I also took Elena snow tubing & we went to Ikea & Elena made her first foray into their ball room but I don’t have any photos of either of these activities. The snow tubing was a blast! What a brave kid she is! She must have my thrill-seeker gene. Her first time ever doing anything like this & she insists on going down the hill ALL BY HERSELF! She loved it & would keep asking the monitors at the top for Super Spins!!

She’s still a bit too young for us to start any New Year’s traditions so I put her to bed at her usual time & I spent the evening watching Game of Thrones, of course! I crawled into bed at midnight & Elena half woke up & cuddled up to me & said, “I love you, Mommy”. What better way to ring in the New Year! I drifted off to sleep marveling at how lucky I am!

And now the countdown is on! We leave for Hawaii in exactly 1 month!!